ST. LOUIS — Officers with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department arrested a man they say was involved in carjacking a marked police vehicle on Friday night.
Around 7 p.m. on Friday, officers in District 3 took a report about a stolen Chevrolet Silverado from the 3400 block of Oregon Avenue.
Then around 8:30 p.m., officers took another report about a carjacking involving the same vehicle that took place in the 2700 block of Keokuk Street. According to police, the 26-year-old victim said he saw two males get out of the Silverado with guns. One of the suspects hit the victim before both of them stole the Chevrolet Cruze from him, police said.
SLMPD's District 1 officers spotted the Silverado around 9:30 p.m. and tried to pull the vehicle over but the pursuit turned into a high-speed chase, according to the police report.
The chase led the suspects to Cherokee Street, where three people fled from the Silverado. According to the police report, officers arrested 23-year-old Rueben Oseguera and recovered two guns they believe he tried to discard as he fled the scene.
One of the guns was stolen from St. Peters, the preliminary report from SLMPD said.
After officers handcuffed the Oseguera and placed him in the backseat of the marked police Tahoe, the suspect was able to slip out of the handcuffs, jump behind the wheel of the vehicle and speed off, Police Spokesman Mitch McCoy said.
The police Tahoe was tracked to Osage Street and Illinois Avenue where the suspect struck a tree, police said. Oseguera was still inside the vehicle without handcuffs.
He was placed in handcuffs again for escaping custody and stealing the police Tahoe. Oseguera was also taken to a local hospital for treatment, police said. The police spokesperson said Oseguera was able to get out of his handcuffs again while he was being evaluated at the hospital, but was caught again and taken into custody.
He was charged Monday with one count of stealing of a motor vehicle and one count of escaping custody.
"We're now in the process of figuring out how did this individual slip out of his handcuffs not just once but twice," McCoy said. "We have a pretty good lead on what that was, we can't get into that because that's part of the investigation, but we are still trying to piece together exactly what happened there."
This is an ongoing investigation.